Measuring engagement with a social networking platform

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• extracting, from an electronic social networking platform, status posts generally broadcast by a particular user identity of the electronic social networking platform to other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network within the electronic social networking platform;
• extracting, from the electronic social networking platform, data revealing responsive comments to the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network;
• extracting, from the electronic social networking platform, data revealing endorsements of the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network;
• determining, based on the extracted data that reveals responsive comments to the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network and the extracted data that reveals endorsements of the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network, an average number of responsive comments and endorsements received per extracted status post;
• determining, based on the extracted data that reveals responsive comments to the extracted status posts received from user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network, a first number of responsive comments to the extracted status posts received from user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network;
• determining, based on the extracted data that reveals endorsements of the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network, a second number of endorsements of the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network;
• determining, based on the extracted data that reveals responsive comments to the extracted status posts received from user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network, a third number of unique user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network from whom responsive comments to the extracted status posts were received;
• determining, based on the extracted data that reveals endorsements of the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network, a fourth number of unique user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network from whom endorsements of the extracted status posts were received
• calculating a numeric measure of the particular user identity's influence within the electronic social networking platform according to the following formula:
• influence=(0.25(c_r+2×c_UIDs+0.5×e_r+2×e_UIDs))(avg_resp)
• where, c_r represents the first number of responsive comments to the extracted status posts received from user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network, c_UIDs represents the third number of unique user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network from whom response comments to the extracted status posts were received, e_r represents the second number of endorsements of the extracted status posts received from other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network, e_UIDs represents the fourth number of unique user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network from whom endorsements of the extracted status posts were received, and avg_resp represents the average number of responsive comments and endorsements received per extracted status post;
• and
• storing the calculated numeric measure of the particular user identity's influence in computer-readable storage media.

A system comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
• extracting, from an electronic social networking platform, targeted messages that were directed to a particular user identity of the electronic social networking platform within the electronic social networking platform;
• determining, based on the extracted targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform, a first number of targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform;
• determining a third number of targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform by gaming applications that leverage the electronic social networking platform;
• determining, based on the extracted targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform, a second number of unique other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network within the electronic social networking platform who personally sent targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform;
• calculating a numeric measure of the particular user identity's popularity within the electronic social networking platform as a function of the first number of targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform, the second number of unique other user identities who are members of the particular user identity's social network within the electronic social networking platform who personally sent targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform, and the third number of targeted messages that were directed to the particular user identity within the electronic social networking platform by gaming applications that leverage the electronic social networking platform;
• and
• storing the calculated numeric measure of the particular user identity's popularity in computer-readable storage media.